Remote e-voting in Russia’s Arctic and subarctic regions during the 2024 Presidential elections in the Russian Federation

The article examines the practices of the remote e-voting in the Arctic and subarctic regions of Northwestern Russia during the 2024 Presidential elections in the Russian Federation: in the Republic of Karelia, the Arkhangelsk Oblast, the Murmansk Oblast, the Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The analysis focuses on the structural determinants of the voting behavior based on the geopolitical position, demographic characteristics, and the level of digital maturity of the studied Russia’s regions. The article highlights Russia’s intention to keep the status of the Arctic as the region of peace and harmony, stable and mutually beneficial partnerships during the ongoing era, of the challenges and threats to national security posed by the unfriendly states. This fact underscores the increased citizens’ attention to the Presidential elections.

The methodological frames are based on the digital society theory in order to indicate the ability of digital technologies to transform the social space into the network structures and corresponding communication channels, to reshape social connections, and form new values and norms in public opinion.

The first-order Presidential elections are interpreted through the concept of social cleavage structures, the conditions affecting the voter turnout and the configuration of voter preferences. A comparative analysis and calculation of the linear correlation dependencies based on the data from the Central Election Commission of the Russian Federation, as well as the survey of the rating and index ranking of the studied units, enabled a multifactorial analysis of the remote e-voting practices in Russia’s Arctic and subarctic regions during the 2024 Presidential elections.

In conclusion, the authors argue that the implementation of a remote evoting not only increases electoral activity but also modifies the mechanisms of political legitimacy formation, while providing the opportunities to assess the prospects for further digitalization of the electoral process.

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